6 booked for forcing boy to marry 30-year-old woman

Lucknow, June 18 (IANS) Criminal cases have been slapped against six people for forcing a 10-year-old boy to marry a 30-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district, police said Thursday. Parents and relatives of the child, residents of Urawar village, had fixed his marriage with Rekha of a nearby village.

“On the complaints by some locals, police Wednesday night reached the spot where pre-marriage rituals were underway and stopped the function. However, by then the boy’s parents Anil Yadav and Rama Devi had managed to escape,” police inspector Devendra Singh told reporters in Firozabad, about 350 km from here.

According to police, the boy said his parents and four other relatives had fixed his marriage with a woman of the Kheria village in Fatehpur district.

From Yadav’s house, police recovered invitation cards according to which the wedding was to take place June 26.

“We have registered a case against Yadav, his wife and four others, who are absconding. Efforts are on to nab them,” said Singh.